


Oak King, Holly King

by Calesvol



Series: The Way of Yin & Yang [6]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, BAMF Hyuuga Hinata, BAMF Uchiha Sasuke, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, F/M, Mental Health Issues, One-Sided Haruno Sakura/Uchiha Sasuke, One-Sided Hyuuga Hinata/Uzumaki Naruto, Post-War, Rebuilding, Sage Mode (Naruto), Sage Uchiha Sasuke, Slow Burn, Uchiha Sasuke-centric, World Travel, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-20
Updated: 2020-10-20
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:55:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,195
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27114338
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Calesvol/pseuds/Calesvol
Summary: For years, hatred and anger were the fires that fueled Sasuke, kept him running hot from all the cold. Now, in the wake of the Great War, the crushing reality of loss and the weight of everything done to him and what he wrought on others weighs miserably upon his shoulders. Instead of a journey of redemption to atone to the village that hates all he is, Sasuke sets out on a journey seeking inner peace with his friends with a red string tied to his finger he never knew existed before.
Relationships: Haruno Sakura & Uchiha Sasuke, Hyuuga Hinata/Uchiha Sasuke, Uchiha Madara & Uchiha Sasuke, Uchiha Sasuke & Team Hebi | Team Taka, Uchiha Sasuke & Uzumaki Naruto
Series: The Way of Yin & Yang [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1751263
Comments: 5
Kudos: 27





	Oak King, Holly King

* * *

Warning(s): T, implied past abuse

* * *

Silence was loud. Silence was deafening. It was waking, unborn, in some brutal relief of sterile white and the din of electricity coursing through wiring so loud it could drown out both heartbeat and thought. It might have come with welcome, bidden relief once. But the sound of medical appliances and strands of fūinjutsu cascading from him in ribbons like a fall of rain brought little relief when the merest difference he’d been used to were laboratories where patients were merely rats. The smell is the same, the promise of imprisonment is the same. 

It was the sort that would turn any scaly hatchling into a brutal thing with feathers. Beaks were sharper than fangs, talons swifter than venom. 

It’s not with a lull that Sasuke awoke that day, night, dusk, morning; it was impossible to tell in the murky dimness crowned above his head, swaddled in sheets and the constricting leathers that bind the remainder of his limbs. He can still feel the sensation of a phantom arm where his left extremity once was, so real it moved like more than some dream. 

“Oh, Sasuke-kun, you’re awake.”

A cold dread climbed from the pith of his gut at the sound of her voice, of the pink-haired kunoichi with exhausted teal eyes that gazed over him with a wary, if distantly trusting look. She didn’t have a reason to trust him, Sasuke knew. For all the reasons in the world Sakura deserved to pummel him across Konohagakure, and he’d gladly allow it for all he put his former team mate through.

 _Former._ That sat heavily on his breast.

He wonders if she still loves him, but knows he cannot give her what was sought. But, _kami_ , she’d been absolutely right. Breadcrumb memories trailed to when he first abandoned the village on that harrowing night, when her sobs and tear-streaked visage had made him hesitate. Maybe then, maybe then… he could’ve been able to love her. Something like it awoke shyly when they were young before his spiral into darkness had blanketed even the most reticent of stars and rendered them ashen and gray by this moment. 

Sakura had been right. She’d been absolutely, irrevocably right. The numbness that had festered as he’d trained, remembering his brother’s malevolent goad to foster hatred and anger from that night when he’d been left alone in death and blood had gradually emptied him until that had been all that was left. Until, not even Itachi’s death satisfied him. From the asphyxiation of his brother’s lacquered fingers around his throat, the hatred of a lifetime became empty, gray, grieving. 

Until Obito’s clutches had sunk into him and the elder Uchiha awoke a new hatred, knowing the accomplice would gradually lead him into a red, frothing oblivion fueled him further into desperation. Until he’d wanted nothing less than to completely sever all ties and become an edifice of hatred that the world would sacrifice its hatred upon. 

And finally, to have some end for the madness. 

“How long was I out for?” Sasuke rasped, throat parched with a swallow feeling like a treacle of dust. Noticing his thirst, Sakura brought a plastic cup of water to his lips, the Uchiha slaking his thirst upon the whole of it, running cool and clean down his throat. He sighed when she withdrew, noticing how the medic wasn’t able to look him in the eye.

Not that he blamed her in the slightest, considering what happened the last time she did.

“It’s been a little over a day,” Sakura answered tensely, the beeping of some medical equipment following her words. “Sasuke-kun, I—“

“Don’t,” Sasuke interjected with a grit of his jaw. “Whatever it is you’re going to say, or try to apologize for… don’t.” 

Sakura’s lips pursed and her temple throbbed, brow furrowed. “Don’t interrupt me. What I’m trying to say is that, once you’re stabilized, you’ll probably end up in prison indefinitely unless they find some reason to find you innocent, which we both know won’t happen. I’m going to try to find some way of finding an alternative for you. You need help, Sasuke-kun. Not to rot in some jail cell.”

Sasuke turned towards her, but Sakura’s eyes averted once more, noticing her discomfiture. How much her instinct wanted to escape his presence, to take some headlong flight away from him, but her natural kindness and desire to help him from the beginning kept her rooted. 

The Uchiha softened considerably before his old teammate, resigned. “What ideas do you have, Sakura?” He knew better than to think she didn’t have some, even by now.

Bolstered, a small smile flitted to the kunoichi’s face. “It’ll be a little slow going, but I’ve been talking to Ino and I’ve decided to open up a children’s mental health clinic with her.” When Sasuke’s silence teetered into dubiousness, Sakura huffed indignantly but without real ire. “It’s going to be a bit of a long process, but my thinking was that I could use it as an avenue to help develop therapy methodology, by helping you.”

Sakura’s hands clenched on her lap astride the small stool she perched upon by his bedside. “It’s just… seeing how you and Naruto-kun grew up made me realize how much kids really suffer. How hard it can be to grow up without any support. I’m hoping that, maybe, I can prevent a lot of pain in the village’s children. And in the teens and adults still going through a war that didn’t end on the battlefield someday, too.”

Sakura understood. Despite the tumult that still existed between them, she had been the first to see his fall into a spiral of revenge and darkness before Naruto even had. Although he knew he couldn’t love her in the way she wanted, he wondered if she realized that the love she’d declared for him on the battlefield hadn’t been romantic. Maybe vestiges of it remained, but it felt different. 

Maybe someday, Team 7 could be a family again. That he could possess that same feeling he’d had as a boy. It would be difficult to recapture, and there was still so much that needed repair in him, but it felt feasible. Like he didn’t have to slough through the darkness that clung to him like tar.

“That sounds like something you’d do,” Sasuke replied after a pregnant pause, a small smile evident. “I’m guessing there’s still a lot to be done to get it realized, Sakura?”

“Yeah, no kidding! I still have to badger Shisō for her approval, and then there’s the meetings with the Fire Daimyō I have to attend to help secure funding… It’s kind of a nightmare,” Sakura explained as she giggled aloud at the thought. “But, once we get it up and going, I’m really excited to see how many people we’ll be able to help.”

In that, Sasuke couldn't agree more. 

“If anyone will be able to make it work, it’s you, Sakura.”

* * *

It had been roughly a month since the war, and his death still didn’t feel real to her. 

In the Konoha Cemetery did a blustery wind soar through the headstones and deliver an autumnal chill that made Hinata grateful for her baggy, frumpy clothing. Though the violet-tinged outfit was worn with age from the years she’d donned it, it became like something of a security blanket. A shield against the world that was still rushing in from even the war. 

Hinata knelt before Neji’s grave with the bouquet of flowers she’d purchased from Yamanaka Flowers, the florid hint of color brightening the periphery of her cousin’s grave, even as the distant rumble of thunder promised a gloomy portent. The elder Hyūga allowed her younger sister room, the girl dwarfed by the bouquet she held as she lowered it in turn. Hinata watched as Hanabi repeated the motion with the same reverence, a practiced poise in her stance. 

Hiashi had been training her exhaustively, of that Hinata bore no doubt. 

Before this grave, none of that mattered. Nothing but thoughts of their deceased cousin suspended between them in the silence, until the rumble of distant thunder drew them to alertness.

Hiashi had already paid his respects, turning to wait for Hanabi to return to his side, but not Hinata. Like a forlorn shadow she trailed after them, like a living ghost haunting her own family. 

The pale violet stucco of the buildings that populated the Hyūga compound were dulled in the relief of dark storm clouds, their brooding presence pronounced when it finally happened to rain, precipitation clattering from the glazed roof tiles tinted darkly from the moisture. While their trio had escaped the rain unscathed, a sunny greeting from Natsu dispelled some of the dourness of the day.

“Natsu-chan, please see to it that Hanabi changes and comes to the training hall in half an hour,” Hiashi instructed the maid who bowed obligingly. 

“Of course, Hiashi-sama. Do you need anything else?”

“No. Leave us.” As Natsu shepherded the younger sister away, but not without a furtive look over her shoulder, Hinata felt a cold dread crest at the prospect of being alone with her father. Though her hands became clammy, her head bowed from the admonishment she knew would come. That cold anticipation that never failed to curdle her blood to ice. Even the rain seemed to fall in chilly squalls before he even began speaking. 

“Hinata, you need to move out of the compound.”

It seemed Hinata had been right to brace herself, her father’s directive seeping into her veins like the pinprick of needles. Her hands hovered near her mouth, an instinctive reaction she could barely help.

“Can… I ask why, Otō-sama?” she asked him weakly, that cold, tarry sensation of dread brewing miserably in her gut. 

Hiashi exhaled loudly through his nostrils, gaze moving away from his daughter. “Hanabi will be entering the most grueling chapter of her life very soon. As heiress to the Hyūga clan, and with the end of the Great War demanding a leader stronger than even myself, she needs unmitigated focus to concentrate on becoming what our clan needs. And I’m afraid that your presence might detract from that goal,” the man expounded with a clinical aloofness, part of Hinata searching for the love he’d once borne in his eyes for her in what felt like a lifetime ago. 

Because that’s what she was in the end, wasn’t she? A distraction. For Hanabi. For Neji that had resulted in her cousin’s death. A distraction that had unleashed the fury of the Kyūbi when she’d attempted to save Naruto in vain from Pein, after she’d selfishly declared her love for the Uzumaki.

Her heart hurt thinking about him, but she knew now wasn’t the time to dwell on that. On feeling… jilted.

“I’ve spoken with your sensei. She’s agreed to let you come live in her home in the Sarutobi compound, like before. I’m sure she’ll appreciate the help with Mirai-chan.”

All of this, and Hinata could barely raise her voice enough to speak. To offer some counter, some buoyant argument against the notion. As much as she loved her sensei like her own mother, she knew her place was there to love and support Hanabi no matter how much she felt so ostracized after her father had practically disowned her years ago. And yet, she couldn’t. No matter how much her heart broke at the thought of leaving Hanabi to fend for herself, for not being a stronger big sister, Hinata couldn’t find her voice. 

“But… maybe I could help with Hanabi-chan’s training—” 

Hiashi shook his head with finality. “I needed you here after the grace period with the Akatsuki was over. You’ve improved much, and I’m proud of the progress you’ve made with Neji before his passing, but I won’t be swayed otherwise. I’ll give you two days to pack your things and leave, am I understood?”

Every word he uttered came like a crushing blow to the young woman, blasting holes through her heart and leaving a bloodless exit where they burned caustically through. Hinata didn’t know how such cold words could feel like being set aflame in their wake, but they did. Somehow, they did.

Her father wasn’t giving her a choice, and his meaning was clear: that she was still as much a failure as she’d been as a child. Just as much a disappointment who bore the misfortune of being his flesh and blood who had the audacity to still be alive, reminding him of her failures. 

Hinata said nothing as she fought to keep a stiff upper lip, hands clasped shakily before her, head bowed deferentially, praying he wouldn’t see the pathetic tears shining her eyes glassily. 

“Yes, Otō-sama,” she murmured softly, unable to modulate her voice steadily enough to say anything else.

Wordlessly, Hiashi nodded with nonchalant finality as his pale gaze saw through and over her as he turned to stride dully away on polished wood floors, leaving her alone in the vestibule for someone else to find.

In that moment, all she knew was that she desperately needed to be left alone.

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Hello there, and welcome to the latest installment in the Way of Yin and Yang series!
> 
> To those unfamiliar, expect a lot of sage-y shenanigans in this AU verse where sages have a history as complex and deep as shinobi. But, aside from this and the worldbuilding to unfold, this is the first of two companion fics to the flagship story: Maiden, Mother, Crone. My hope is that, with this story, I can honestly delve into Sasuke's character and a journey that's less redemption to the place that abused him and more one of reclamation of who he is as a person and the sole (for now...) remaining Uchiha in the world. 
> 
> Additionally, while it does say 'Uchiha Sasuke-centric' on the tin, it's a bit misleading as Sasuke won't be alone. Hinata will be there along for the ride as she, too, comes to terms with her own abuse and gets to know a man she has more in common with than she'll believe at first. Their relationship will be one of healing and growing together.
> 
> Lastly, aside from that, Team Taka and the members' own stories will feature heavily, as well. Sasuke didn't get to know them very well throughout the manga, and this story will endeavor to flesh out his relationships with them, too.


End file.
